Brand Integration and Bollywood

Smell the Fevicol

By Harish Bijoor

Brand-integration in Bollywood has surely come out of the closet. And how!

One has traversed an entire 360-degree movement here. From the days of yore when brands had a prominent Pan Paraag banner on a college stage when a filmi ‘jhatka’ was running, to the appearance of a packet of Red Label tea on the drawing room table, to the cut-out of a brand being crashed into by a zooming car in which the ubiquitous villain (now dead) was racing, we have come a full circle. The subtle gave way to the overt and the overt gave way to the subtle.

My contention is a simple one. Subliminal however works. Works better than the overt. The subtle rules. Works better in a more long-term manner of speaking than the overt and crass brand placement efforts that have given brand-placement an entirely terrible name for itself in India.

Look at it this way. Brands cannot be forced down people’s throats. Brands can be guided seamlessly into psyches by patient, constant, slow and subliminal effort. When something is pushed down a throat, it has the habit of being noticed and has a habit of being re-gurgitated back out, rather fast and swift. Reverse-peristalsis.

When you place a brand in a film with care and subtlety, it has a habit of staying there. The Aston Martin in a James Bond film is there, but is there with a clear context of placement. The Aston Martin does not shout. There is a FedEx in Castaway, but there is a clear context to it. It has not been forced into the plot, certainly not as forcibly as the effort of Fevicol in Dabangg 2.

See the success of an accidental brand placement versus a conscious one. Zandu Balm in a Dabangg was a big, big hit. And in the beginning, Emami went after the filmmakers for infringing on their brand.

From Hollywood then we have a similar case when the makers of Louis Vuitton went behind Warner Brothers, the makers of The Hangover2. The brand actually gained by the casual and the irreverent mention of a Louis Vuitton (pronounced wrongly with purpose) by the irrepressible Alan (Zach Galifianakis). Nevertheless, whether it is Hollywood or Bollywood, the best brands seem to respect forced and paid placements over the spontaneous and un-paid. And this is where the error lies. When you as the brand custodian control brand placement in a film, you make it as forced as forced can be. When a creative mind uses it accidentally in a script, the best use really happens. The most spontaneous and the most real.

Fevicol in a Dabangg 2 looks as forced as forced can be. There is so much discomfort in the lyric. There is so much discomfort in the meaning of it all as well. And most importantly, there is discomfort in the intent of the filmmaker and the marketer as well. And it shows. The consumer is not a moron. The consumer is your wife! And hopefully your wife is not a moron! Marketers need to understand this. Understand it before we stifle the goose that is actually laying the golden eggs. At least it was. In the past.

If the debate is over the subtle versus the shameless use of product placement, as of now, the shameless seems to rule. Everyone is out to force the worst out of product placement. Everyone is out to force the most. Everyone wants to milk the most. And not too many are concerned about context.

This sin is really a two-way sin. We need filmmakers with spine who insist on context when looking at product placement deals. We equally need marketers who look for proper context when studying scripts and options. We need to avoid the forced. We need to tread the path of the subtle and avoid the one that is in the eye and in the face. That era of brand-placement is done with. It worked when the masses thought like the masses. Today, the masses think like the classes. Consumers are really tired of attempts to poke them in the eye, in the gut, and in the groin equally. There’s been just too much of it.

Wake up and smell the Fevicol.

Harish Bijoor is a brand-strategy specialist & CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.

Twitter @harishbijoor

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Branding Brand Bengal

How to re-position and build Brand Bengal?

Touch Branding Brand Bengal

By Harish Bijoor

The rise of Mamata in West Bengal is possibly the best thing that has happened to Bengal. I do not say this with jingoistic political fervour.  Instead I say it with realistic pragmatism. This pragmatism is related to one simple word: change.

Brand Bengal has been static for far too long. Brand Bengal has seen just no change for far too long. Time for change. And what better an opportunity than now? There is a change in political leadership (after eleven long years), political party (after 34 longer years) and political ideology (after the longest number of years).

Brand Bengal is crying to be re-positioned. This re-positioning needs to be all about change. Change that is radical, and change that delivers and touches the lives of people in a meaningful manner.

Let me look at colors first. From red to green. From the Marxist traffic-stop red to a Trinamool fresh and alive green. I do believe the colors themselves tell a story. A story that needs to be taken to heart and taken ahead in terms of actual ground level delivery by Mamata and team.

The election euphoria will die down, grass-root level realities will bite, the economy will bite, the dissenting sets of folk in the opposition will bite, and the expecting patient masses will bite as well.

In a political democracy such as ours, the masses will give its leaders time. But this time will run out slowly but surely. As will the patience of the masses. What Mamata has to therefore do is pitch deep in with a 100-day program that delivers. Delivers stuff that can be seen, touched, felt, smelt and experienced.

My advise then, is a 4-point active touch programme for the first 365-days.

1.     Touch Kolkata. Touch Kolkata with a clean Kolkata campaign where you will involve party cadres and the community alike. The party cadres are fresh with the positive energy of the recently concluded elections. Harvest this energy right in touching and thanking every Kolkatan by cleaning up his area physically. With his help. And with the active support of the ground level cadres. Tell the Kolkatan that the end of the election is just about the beginning of governance. A clean message to convey as well.

2.     Touch the top 80 small towns of West Bengal. Touch it with a campaign that has the party cadre going all out to involve the young in the work force who are looking for work. Build a plan to link the best BPO outfits of India to go into the interiors to source manpower that is education-ready but has no actual job-opportunity to fit into. Make a model of it.

3.     Touch the top 600 villages of West Bengal as well. Again with the active party cadre. Touch the top 600 villages with a plan to educate the children who just don’t go to school. Focus on the girl child, where the problem is worse. Touch these villages with the torch of education. Marry this with a pilot mid-day meal scheme that focuses on nutrition. Make a model of it.

4.     Touch the next level of 1800 impoverished villages from the worst districts. Out here, use the cadre to actually help out with a programme that focuses on health delivery to all. Put together a robust preventive health-care programme, even as the focus remains on curative care. Bengal must boast of a zero-tolerance to sickness. Use PPP from the best Pharmaceutical companies that are waiting on the wall of such a  participation. Make a model of it.

The focus of every initiative is touching people. The touch of Mamata?

Most governments when just elected get besotted with governance that is related to what happens at the top. Mamata must be different. She must touch everyone when the iron of the elections is just very, very hot. She must be able to convey to the people that she means business. If Mamata does not run fast in the first 100 days she will find it harder to run faster thereafter.

Re-positioning Brand Bengal will happen not in one day, not in a hundred days, but possibly in all of a thousand days of positive touch and feel oriented governance.

My definition of a brand is a simple one: The brand is a thought. Brand Bengal is a thought. This thought needs to be leveraged with positive inputs that actually touch people every day and tell them loudly that there is a government that is working all the while. Working with the goal of delivery in a better life to the common man at large. A life they can see, touch, feel, smell, taste and experience.

True-blue branding is really not about image. It is really about experience. I do believe Mamata can and has the ability to deliver this experience. An experience that will rise above the rhetoric at large of positive governance.

People at large are simple people. People want action and not words. There have been enough words right up to the election. Now that the elction is done with, and now that the government is in place, people really want the experience.

Re-positioning brand Bengal will happen in the experience of governance the people of Bengal will feel for a start. Brand Bengal has two aspects to it. The first aspect is what Brand Bengal means to those who live in Bengal. The second is all about what Bengal will represent to everyone else who does not live in Bengal. The first task to attempt is Internal branding. External Branding will follow seamlessly thereafter.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harish Bijoor is a brand-strategy specialist & CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.

Twitter.com @harishbijoor

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Brand India Ahead in 2013

Get Inclusive, Or Get Excluded

By Harish Bijoor

The Mayan era is done with. And looks like all of us have survived it. And how.

As the year 2013 dawns, what’s ahead for us in Brand India?

Plenty ahead, provided the mindset is to reap the plenty. Read a lot in those words, as this ‘peek-ahead’ piece of mine is all about reaping the opportunity that lies in the largest of the masses rather than the old approach that has held us in good stead over the last several marketing decades of “reaping the niches”.

The year and indeed the decade ahead of us in marketing terms is all about looking at market opportunity with a different set of spectacles altogether. If I were to summarize it all for the Twitter-Gen of today, I would put it simply in 31   characters: Get inclusive, or get excluded.

The idea is a simple one. An old one as well. One berated by many a thinker over the decades, but seldom listened to by a nation that was plucking the low hanging fruit of market opportunity that lay with those with early-money in their hands.

Now however, since that opportunity seems to be drying up, time to think different and look at the masses with a keener glad-eye than before.

The world is today all of 7 Billion people. 1.2 Billion of them reside in India. Maybe a lot more than that as well, as I firmly believe our population fact is an understatement rather than a statement.  Of the 7 Billion in the world, as much as 5 Billion are people a typical marketer would put outside of the active branded consumption mindset. This mass is really, really large. This mass is one that is growing not only in terms of size, but aspiration as well. The opportunity ahead is therefore in this big mass. 

If you look at India in particular, this mass could be as large as all of 840 Million people. 840 million people waiting on the precipice of a brand buy. 840 Million people who have a rather skin deep penetration of brands today. And most of these brands that have penetrated their lifestyles may be in the realm of telecom, telecom services, and basic FMCG products. Imagine the opportunity ahead as this mass booms in terms of aspiration to buy and aspiration to consume. Imagine the opportunity ahead as this mass moves from products to services. From the basic to the value-added segment as well. The opportunity ahead is large. Very large.

Look at India today. In many ways modern India has been built by brands that started their early work in the first few years of the last decade. Look at telecom. Telecom brands have helped place 942 million handsets in the hands of as many as 670 Million people in India. The halfway mark has been breached. Look at the telecom service providers who power these handsets with basic and value added services. Look at every FMCG player in the market who has quietly built a super-structure of active consumption of brands. India is a nation of 1.2 Billion bellies and bladders. As many bellies, that much the opportunity for food. As many bladders, that much the opportunity for every kind of beverage.  And guess what, the Indian at large has not only belly and bladder. Add to it thirty-one other body parts that crave for branded solutions. The hair for hair oil and hair dye alike, the skin for moisturizer and vitamin creams alike, and lots lots more.

The real opportunity ahead is looming large, and lies in India’s under-penetrated categories. The opportunity lies equally in rural as in urban. Our big asset is population. And population is an asset that delivers slowly. Its time to deliver has come. The marketing and brand fraternity needs to wake up to this opportunity and leverage it to advantage.

There is a problem though. The opportunity is out there in terms of numbers, but this opportunity can be leveraged only by those who do believe in ‘market creation’ exercises, rather than ‘market reaping’ processes that have dominated past decades. Time to change that mindset altogether. And this is difficult.

Markets of the future that lie in the realm of the bottom 5 Billion of the world population opportunity, will need to be created, rather than reaped. And that is a mindset that needs to dominate 2013. Create first. Reap later. The era of Instant gratification for the marketer is over.

The trends that will dominate market creation activities in the years ahead will be aided and guided ably by systems and processes that are falling into place. The UIDAI Aadhaar, its financial inclusion goals, its real pan-national roll-out and the tools of schemes such as the DCT (Direct Cash Transfer) scheme of the government of India, will all help and spur the movement of market creation. 

Think of it this way. Till now, as much as INR 3,50,000 Crores was reaching the bottom end of the market as subsidies and transfers what were less efficient and leaky in its delivery pattern. As the subsidy regime gives way to DCT, it simply means one big thing for the salivating marketer in India. When subsidies are doled out, the consumer got kerosene and had to use it. The consumer got rice and fertilizer and pesticide alike, and had to use it or re-sell it at suboptimal prices. Now, if DCT kicks in finally, it means there is that much money in the bank accounts of the consumer. This money will find its way into consumption. And this consumption is going to spur market opportunity further. As more money hits consumer wallets at the bottom of the pyramid, more expenditure happens. And as more expenditure happens, a lot happens.

As India becomes an opportunity that is getting bigger and bigger, marketers need to however remember one big trend point to tread carefully for the years ahead.

The marketer needs to get inclusive. The marketer needs to think of the masses that are larger than what he defined to be his masses. The marketer needs to reach out to potential consumers and non-consumers alike. Every brand offering needs to have two avatars. One for the potential buyer and one for the non-buyer. The marketer needs to molly-coddle the non-buyer as well today, with the hope of him being a vital part of his future market. Marketers that forget this basic tenet will get excluded from consumer mindsets.

In the future, you cannot depend on your advertising to buy markets. You will instead need to depend on your good market creation work to put together your markets. The India Marketing Rubik’s cube is in your hands. You need to create the right picture on every side of the cube. Every side. Not only the one side you were comfortable with all these decades.  You need to get more and more inclusive.

In short, get inclusive. Or get excluded. Touché.

Harish Bijoor is a business strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.

Twitter @harishbijoor

Brand Tihar Jail

Brand Tihar Jail

By Harish Bijoor

Now you are going to laugh about this.

We run a monthly monitor of brands  and brand names that make a mark.  Across seven geographies. India included. We do it every month on the 7th, rain, shine, hailstone or Tsunami.

And guess what? This month’s biggest brand in the bag as far as India is concerned is not Bata which went into a revamp mode, not the generic sounding “2G”, which beat “3G” hollow, thanks to all the negative publicity the scam brought home. Not “IPL” which just about concluded on a high, and not “Wild Stone” and every other deodorant brand that went berserk spending money establishing the status of a girl-magnet brand, and not twenty other brands that you and I have been watching on television tell us what to buy and what to use.

Instead, what has floated up in the top 5, along with everything else I have just referred to, is an institution brand. Not the IIM, Ahmedabad. Not any of our IITs. Instead, the top brand in the minds and psyches of Indians at large in the month gone by: Tihar Jail!

Wow! Not bad for Tihar Jail. After all of 53 years of being around, Tihar Jail has attained the status of a mega brand. A brand with a very high recall value and a brand that floats amidst the top 5 brand names that people in India have been thinking about in the month gone by.

How does this happen?

I define the brand simply: The brand is a thought. A thought that lives in people’s minds. If you were to buy this definition of mine, every thought that lives in a consumer mind is a brand. To an extent the thought of your Dad floats along with the thought of Amul butter and possibly 800 plus brands that live top-of-mind in an average consumer’s mind.

In our minds, there are really no partitions that divide brands and keep them aside as brands of people and brands of products and brands of services and brands of institutions. And if that is so, Tihar Jail in Tihar Village in the West of Delhi, today floats top-of-mind with the best brands that live and thrive in your mind.

What does this mean then?

The Jail already has its products. Time for Tihar Jail to monetize this opportunity. With its host of celebrity guests biding time, this might just be the time to get things going. Time to get its logo right. Time to establish for itself the status of a brand with a logo, a color, a slogan and more?

This is a brand that needs no advertising for sure. Thankfully. The brand has been built bottom-up, and totally with inputs of generations. Just goes to show that brands are built with positive strokes and brands are built with negative strokes. If AIIMS is a brand built assiduously over the years, so is Tihar Jail. With different strokes!

Let’s then welcome Tihar Jail to the hall of brands.

And what’s the last bullet to bite? Or the last shovel of salt to swallow?

A merchandize store at Tihar Jail? A place one can buy Tihar branded T-shirts, mugs, shot-glasses and more? As souvenirs of a brand that has arrived?

Or better still, imagine a Pub owner who thinks up a Tihar Jail theme pub?  Wait for more. Brand Tihar Jail is here.

Touché!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harish Bijoor is a brand-strategy specialist & CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.

Twitter.com/harishbijoor

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------